Advice on hotels for a 3yr old

[ManxNic]

I've been to Orlando before and I've done Disney and Universal etc but I've always stayed on I-Drive. I'm looking to go again in April 2015 this time with our son who will be 3. We'll be travelling from the UK and it'll be my partners first time too.

This time we will just do the Disney side of things and not Universal just because I cant see us taking full advantage of Universal with a 3yr old unless we do all the rides as single riders/parent swap which takes away the fun.

My dilemma is whether to stay on I-Drive as I'm used to with all the access to restaurants and city walk for some nice meals out etc, or pay extra and stay onsite in Disney (I'm talking £1,000 more at least) but this would include disney dining, albeit just the quick service one so any sit down evening meals would be additional cost.

Am I better paying the additional £1,000 and staying onsite with quick dining plan, disney transportation etc, or save that £1,000 for spends and use it for paying for lunch/dinner for the 3 of us and paying $17 parking per day. (We will be hiring a car whether we stay onsite or not so no savings there really.)

I've never stayed onsite so I have no comparisons of my own, but I've been looking at Disney Caribbean Beach Resort if that makes any difference to opinions?

Any insight would be appreciated

 

[cruisingtwins]

Have you looked at wyndham bonnet creek. It's inside disney property but not owned by disney you can get huge condo for a fraction of the price of a disney room.

 

[canadiandisneymommy]

We recently stayed at the hilton lake buena vista which is literally right across from downtown Disney. It also offers free shuttle buses to every Disney park every 30 minutes. And you can get access to extra magic hours. Popular hotel for families.

 

[tinkerbesh]

Just a question- if you're not planning on doing Universal, what about staying on site at Disney and NOT renting a car? If you have no other plans in Orlando, you wouldn't need one. You could take the Magical Express from the airport (free for Disney resort guests) & use Disney transportation the rest of the time to get around on property.

Also consider looking at the Value level hotels - we love them all, but Pop Century is our fave.

When deciding whether or not to get the dining plan, I recommend looking up food prices on all ears.net and seeing what you think you'd spend on food compared to the cost of the DP.

Good luck!

 

[DopeyDame]

I've never stayed off site, so I can't offer you a comparison for that.
I have stayed at Caribbean Beach with a toddler and it's perfect! The splash area is awesome for 3 year olds and the main pool is a zero-entry pool so that makes things so easy and fun. CBR is our go-to moderate resort with the kids.

All that said, 1000 pounds is like $2000, right? That's a heck of a lot of money. As a PP said, consider not renting a car if you stay on site, and then try to price out what you would actually spend on site vs. off site in total. If it really comes up to a $2000 difference, I'd probably be staying off site. For us, the difference has never been that huge.

 

[JanBlessed]

There are several resorts in the downtown Disney area that offer bus transportation throughout "the Wirld" (like a PP said). I have stayed in 2 of them with my 3 yr old and the following year, when he was 4. They were great! You can walk to Downtown Disney for dining or take the bus. I drive to WDW and still like to park my car and not use it the rest of the time tha t I am there.

That said, use the shuttle from the airport and free busses. I believe that this will be your best option.

 

[glassslippergirl]

I wouldn't stay on I-drive for an exclusively WDW vacation. I've made that mistake before. It wasn't worth it just in terms of fighting the heavy traffic in I-drive (that road can really back up), not to mention rush hour traffic on highways to the parks.

Like others, I'd look into the hotels by DTD. Mousesavers.com often advertises deals from these hotels.

As for the car, not sure how long you plan to stay, but one week if car rental will probably run you around $500, which is a quarter of the $2000 more it will cost to stay in site. Getting rid of the car is not really going to make it that much easier financially to stay onsite. I'd keep the car if you stay in the DTD hotels. It makes it a lot easier and faster to get around the property, you aren't beholden to a hotel shuttle schedule, and you can use it to drive from the DTD area to restaurants on nearby Apopka-Vineland Road (lots of choices there).

I recommend against the quick service DDP. You'll hit your threshold for QS meals quickly.

I'd just pay OOP. If it's your partner's first time, you can schedule a few special restaurants in the parks to commemorate as well as a character meal or two for the little one. Do QS and off-site dining for the rest.

Enjoy.

 

[Fsudisney]

I would stay onsite at a value or moderate and skip the QS dining plan. Art of Animation, pop century, or Caribbean beach would all be great for a toddler. Plus you can savers car rental and just take disney transportation. Onsite hotels always beat offsite in my opinion.

 

[Lupeix]

Staying onsite vs offsite really depends on whether you take advantage of the onsite perks and really want to be in "the magic" all the time. Offsite is always cheaper. As a mom of a toddler I found after looking into this a lot that offsite is a better option for us, provided that you are close enough to the parks, so I am not sure if I would stay on I-drive

These are the main three reasons:

- We will never get to enjoy the EMH

- A car is an absolute must with a toddler, unless you stay on the monorail (which is quite expensive), since it is always faster than the bus. Also, that age group does not have a lot of patience for waiting in line for a bus. At the end of the day you will likely have a passed out toddler in a stroller and it is much easier to just get in the car and go (tip: valet park at the contemporary if going to MK it is only 3$ more)

- It is my experience that with small ones it is ideal to have a separate space for them to sleep/nap. Which means a 1 bedroom or suite at minimum. This will make your vacation a lot more enjoyable. Only DVC villas will offer that onsite. You can rent DVC for a fraction of what it will cost, something you want to look into if you have enough time until the trip and really want to stay onsite.

Last year we stayed at a 1 bedroom at the Sheraton Vistana (he was 2 1/2) which we liked a lot. Next year he will be 4 and we wanted to be closer to the parks, so we will be staying in a 3 bedroom (taking grandma and grandpa) at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek which is on property next to Caribbean beach. With a car, which we always rent anyway, you are as close to the parks as staying onsite and it is convenient for taking afternoon breaks. You can get a 2 bedroom condo at 120 a night on low season, there are 1 ,3 and 4 bedrooms as well. The extra bedroom and 2500$ we saved compared to renting DVC for a two bedroom at AKL were hard to pass up.

There's a really big thread on WBC on the DISboards you can take a look into if you are interested.